


spectres; rey/ben, 7600w

by holocrons



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Horror, Blood and Gore, Horror, Mutilation, Other, Psychological Horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-06 08:14:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16384496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/holocrons/pseuds/holocrons
Summary: Ben is haunted in every sense of the word. By his misdeeds, by the guilt stemming from them. But more pressingly, Ben is haunted by a being who wants nothing less than to claim his very soul.





	spectres; rey/ben, 7600w

I. Mother

 

Leia was overcome with emotion when the medical droid gave her the news. Her suspicions and anticipations were correct: she was pregnant. 4 months along, to be exact, and with a baby boy according to the ultrasound. She had been feeling her son for weeks, feeling what she could only describe as a band of light growing inside of her. An unmistakable connection to her creation, a creation that made Han whoop and shout with joy when he heard the news of its existence.

At first, though, she had dismissed these sensations as a trick of the mind and chalked them up to simply being overworked. She was just beginning to settle into her role as General and barely had time to plan out war strategies, nevermind sit and wonder why she was late or why she couldn't help feeling slightly unsettled at the idea of a life forming in her womb.

Although she eventually grew to anticipate her baby's arrival, there was something that kept her from being happy. That band of light that she felt burning from the within would sometimes dim, and then sometimes go out completely, much like a bulb on the last few days of its lifespan. It was almost as though her son could not decide who or what he wanted to be, or whether he wanted to be at all.

This alone would have been enough to set her teeth on edge, but somewhere between her 6th and 7th months, she began to hear the voices. They were but whispers at first, so soft and unintelligible that she thought they might be an attempt made by her child to communicate with her. She wondered for a while if it were just a consequence of being force sensitive and of being a mother on top of that, but then the words being spoken to her began to come through more clearly.

The voices were deep and raspy, and undeniably sinister; like those of old men who had lived lives filled with misdeeds and mal-intent. And the things they said to her... Leia would tremble in fear and revulsion upon recollection. With Han and Chewie away on business she spent the majority of her nights alone, and that was when the voices seemed to enjoy preying on her psyche the most. They terrified her so badly she would hear them even in her dreams; the endless noise and lack of sleep made her feel agitated and highly irritable.

With nearly a month left before her son was to be born (by then she had decided to name him Ben), Leia sought out Luke's guidance, hoping that the tenured Jedi could offer her some kind of insight towards the workings of the force. She had C3PO accompany her on the way to the academy her brother had founded; not because the droid was particularly useful, but mostly because he could never keep from talking. Having to hear 3PO talk was far better than hearing... them.

Luke must have sensed that she was coming, because as she grew nearer to the landing point, she could see that her brother was already there, waiting. He had let his beard grow long and was starting to show grey in his hair, but his eyes were the same. Gentle and full to the brim with kindness. He greeted her with a smile and immediately touched her belly, wanting, Leia assumed, to feel little Ben's presence firsthand.

"You've named him after Obi-Wan," said Luke. It wasn't a question. Leia nodded in confirmation and her twin smiled at her yet again. He placed his hands on her belly for a second time and held them there for a while, his eyes shut and brow furrowed with...confusion? Strain? Leia couldn't make sense of the expression. "Hmm," was the only sound that left Luke's lips.

Finally, Luke brought his hands down to his sides and began to rub his thumbs against the tips of his fingers, almost as if he was trying to remove some kind of residue. Just as Leia was about to ask what his utterance meant, Luke began to speak. "Do you have a name for the other one yet?"

The inquiry shook Leia to her very core; she felt her heart stop for just a moment and her breathing hitched. Was she carrying twins? She couldn’t be... the image the droid had brought to her was solid and distinguishable.

“There is only one,” she said, placing her hands on her stomach in an attempt to feel what Luke felt.

Luke wordlessly grabbed hold of her hand and began to lead her inside the temple. Its walls were made of stone and offered little protection from the breeze lifting off of the sea, but Leia was simply happy to sit down. Her legs felt weak and there were sharp pains edging around the base of her spine.

Luke had left her for a few moments and returned with a mug filled with blue liquid. She took the cup from him and held it in her hands for a while, examining the hue and wondering what he was offering her. After some time, she took a sip and immediately scrunched up her nose in disgust. At least it’s warm, she thought.

“Leia,” Luke started, taking a seat in the chair across from hers. “What brings you here?”

She took a deep breath in an attempt to ready herself for what she was about to say. She knew she could trust her twin absolutely, but something within her warned her that he may not be able to understand. Warned her that he might be... dangerous? She urged the voices to be silent.

“It’s my son,” she said, her voice low and quivering. “I’m worried that there may be something wrong with him.”

She set the cup down on the table beside her so as not to drop it; her hands were shaking uncontrollably now and she was beginning to feel a wave of nausea.

“I keep hearing these voices. At first, I thought they might be Ben, that it was just the force connecting us, but no child could ever say such things. Do you think that our father-?”

Luke shook his head at her before she could finish her sentence. He leaned over in his seat and grabbed hold of his sister’s hands. “What do the voices say?” He asked.

“They say that they want my baby dead. That I should split open my womb and rid myself of him.”

 

II. Temple

 

The morning that Ben was set to arrive for his training, Luke could not shake the feeling of dread pooling at his core.

Luke had no idea what to expect; he had not seen his nephew since Leia had given birth and 23 years had passed since then. What would young Ben Solo look like now? Would he resemble Leia or would he favor Han? Would he look like Anakin, perhaps? Luke tried his best to busy himself with questions such as these, not because they mattered, but because they allowed him some relief. He found it difficult to forget the sound of Leia's voice when they last spoke, when she had informed him that she would be sending Ben his way. She sounded scared, even more terrified than when he revealed to her that Vader was their father.

"It's gotten so much worse, Luke," she explained via hologram. "They've been talking to him. I don't know how long it's been going on, but he's starting to scare me. The things that he does... I need you to take him."

Luke waited for his nephew to arrive on the same strip where he had met with Leia so many years ago. He remembered touching his sister's belly, feeling movement inside, sensing a soul that he knew undeniably stemmed from his bloodline. That same Skywalker blood that flowed through Luke's own veins. He recognized the force in her unborn child, saw how it dimmed and brightened just as Leia described. But there was something else, too. Something ancient.

After Leia had returned to Chandrila, Luke spent days without sleep, pondering and trying to make sense of what he felt. At first, he thought that Leia might be carrying twins; the probability was higher considering Leia herself was a twin and it would explain the secondary presence that had made itself known. It would have made perfect sense, and it would have brought about a great amount of consolation, but Leia was certain that she was carrying only one child. So what was it that Luke had seen?

Luke was pulled from his thoughts upon the ship's arrival; the humid air whirling from the engines made his hair whip around his face and forced the ocean surrounding the temple to whip upwards around him, forming a salty mist that stung his skin. The spacecraft came to a full stop and soon after the latch began to open. Luke's heart began to beat faster and faster, almost as though it were trying to escape some sort of danger. What would come out of that ship? Would it be merely a man or some kind of monster?

Ben emerged from the craft's entrance and Luke nearly fainted at what he saw.

Young Solo was merely a man, yes, with raven black hair and deep set eyes that emitted a certain kind of despair that seemed unnatural for someone Ben's age. But directly behind him, so close behind him in fact that it seemed to be resting on Ben's shoulders, was the visage of something monstrous beyond imagination. It was an old man with cracked, decaying flesh that was pulled taut around his misshapen skull. Along the center of his face was a long, sickle-shaped scar that seemed to reach down to the bone and the figure's eyes were a sickly pale blue in color.

The being smiled at Luke, revealing crooked teeth that had long since rotted and a horrific, crater-like depression in what was left of its cheek. As the expression took over the man's features, the tendons and ligaments in his jaw began to shake with stress, causing his teeth to chatter and grind. The sounds made Luke feel sick to his stomach.

There was no doubt about it: this was the same being that Luke had sensed in Leia's womb. Not only had she given birth to it alongside her son, but it was also preying on and feeding off of Ben like some kind of parasitic twin.

Nevertheless, the Jedi kept to the word he had given his sister and allowed his nephew to enter the temple. Luke set Ben up with his own quarters, just outside of the training grounds where Luke could easily keep an eye on him. He began instruction immediately the following morning, starting with simple tests to determine Ben's abilities. He passed all of them with flying colors, demonstrating his power with great ease and a not so subtle hint of pride. Luke would have been proud, too, if not for the grinning man in the background, seemingly omnipresent and omniscient.

Although the spectre's presence never faltered, Ben did not seem to notice it much, at least as far as Luke could see. There were moments though, during his training, where Ben seemed to be... off. While reading the Jedi texts, Ben would shiver and arch his spine, much like a cat would if you were to trace a finger along its back. He would speak out of turn or respond inappropriately to the questions and theories that Luke was proposing. And sometimes he would refuse to eat, claiming that he could not hold down his meals. But the most concerning occurrences seemed to come about when Luke was not around to witness them.

"They come to our rooms when we sleep."

A tiny, frightened voice filled Luke's ears and he turned around immediately to find its source. It had come from one of his padawans, a young girl from somewhere in the Western Reaches whose soil-stained face was riddled with terror.

"Who does?" asked Luke, although he was sure he already knew the answer.

"Them," said the girl, looking up at Luke with her eyes blown wide. "I don't know their names, but there's a man. I see him every night.. all he does is just stand there. Sometimes there's whispers, but I can't hear what they're saying."

Luke sent the girl back to her chambers in a frenzy, yelling at her almost intelligibly before he was able to calm himself and warn the padawan against leaving her room. Then, Luke searched every corner of the temple with a vigor that rivaled even the swiftest and most thorough of floods. But Solo was nowhere to be found.

Evenfall began to creep through the borders of the sky, darkening its horizons and staining them with crimson. Luke had not wanted to give up the search for his nephew, but the anxiety that coursed through him made it all the more difficult to navigate through the night. He stayed put in his room for a while, trying to steady his breath and think about the best course of action. Should he confront Ben about the visage? Was Ben at fault for any of this? Should he tell Leia what he had seen, what he had felt all those years ago? Had the time he spent as a teacher, away from civilization, finally driven him mad?

As he paced his room and waited for the answer to reach him, he heard the sound of a door slamming from outside his window. Luke padded his way over as quickly as his feet would carry him and saw the light of a fire coming from the inside of Ben's dwelling. There he stood, frozen with fear and uncertainty for what felt like hours, days even. But it was only a few minutes, and after those minutes had passed, the fire was put out. Once again, Luke was face to face with nothing but starlight and shadow.

Having grabbed his lightsaber, Luke started down the path towards Ben, determined to put an end to everything that had happened. He pushed the door open gently so as not to make a sound, hoping that silence would give him the upper hand. He slipped inside and found... nothing to be concerned about. Ben was fast asleep in his cot, breathing shallowly but steadily, and his lightsaber was resting on his bedside table. Everything seemed right as rain.

Perhaps Ben shivered because he was not used to the climate, perhaps he could not finish his meals out of depression, perhaps his speaking to himself was a nervous tick. Perhaps Luke truly was going mad.

Just as Luke turned to leave, he heard rustling sounds coming from behind him and immediately, instinctively, activated his saber. With the green glow of his weapon revealing even the darkest parts of the room, Luke was able to see that Ben was not alone. Perched at the foot of his nephew's bed was that goddamned spectre, grimacing at Luke with his body twitching and spasming. And before he could make a move to strike it, Luke heard the sounds of another saber being ignited. He saw the look of fear in his nephew's eyes, fleeting but unmistakably present, then felt the brick and stone residence collapse around him before fading out of consciousness.

When he woke, Luke found his school burnt beyond repair; there was nothing left of it but rubble and cinders. On the temple grounds and beneath the debris he saw the littered, dismembered bodies of his students. He wept with despair.

From somewhere behind him, or perhaps all around him, Luke could hear the faint chattering of teeth.

 

III. Chandrila

 

On the eve of his 18th birthday, Ben was visited by the apparition of a little girl.

She danced around his room as though she were light as a feather; her lily-white tunic flowed behind her in the breeze she had created with her movements. She wore wrappings on her arms that started at the wrists and led upwards all the way towards the middle of her biceps. Her dark hair was wrapped neatly into three buns.

"Who are you?" asked Ben, genuinely confused by her presence. He had sat upright in his bed, propping himself up on his elbows in an attempt to get a better look at her. He realized, briefly, that he should not have been so calm; the girl could have literally been anyone - a spy, or even an assassin. But given his lifelong proclivity towards seeing things that should not be there, he decided to let her answer.

She stopped her frolicking for a moment - just long enough to answer him - and brought her gaze upwards to meet his. "My name is Rey," she said, then got right back to twirling about on her heels.

"Rey," he repeated, trying to get the name to stick in his memory. He was certain that he had never seen this girl before, but something about her was vaguely familiar to him. "It's nice to meet you, but.. who are you?"

"No one."

"Where did you come from?"

"Nowhere."

Ben was growing tired of the girl's flippant responses. He wanted nothing more than to get back to bed; his mother was planning a meeting with the Senate, both to celebrate his becoming an adult and to possibly secure him a position in the future. He had to be up bright and early for it and he had no time for babysitting. Especially not with a child he didn't know, and most definitely not with a child who had mysteriously found her way into his room in the middle of the night.

"Look," he started, getting up out of bed so that he might grab hold of the girl and bring her to the droids. "I don't know how you got in here, but you need to leave. I'll have one of my mother's droids take you home."

Her eyes began to well up with tears, tears that eventually spilled over onto her cheeks, and Ben felt a sharp pang of guilt in his chest at the sight of them. She pulled her arm from his reach and shrunk herself away in the corner of the room.

"I'm sorry, but you'll have to leave," he repeated. He made his way over towards her, reaching out for her wrist. But just as he was about to make contact, she simply vanished into thin air. He waved his hand out in front of him, feeling the empty space that she was occupying just a second ago. Had he just seen a ghost?

Ben spent the rest of his night wide awake, his eyes fixed on the spot where she had disappeared.

 

Rey showed up again the next night, and then every night after that for nearly two weeks. He had started to grow accustomed to her being around, grateful, even. Because for the most part, when Rey was there, the old man wasn't. And on the nights where they both made themselves visible, Rey's voice seemed to significantly drown that of the man's out.

"What's his name?" she asked, pointing directly at the decrepit creature.

"I don't know," Ben answered. Even after all this time, he honestly could say that he didn't have a clue.

"Is he from nowhere? Like me?"

"Maybe."

"Well," she began, tilting her head over to one side as if she had just realized something. "Why aren't you afraid of him?"

"I guess I'm just used to him." Whether or not Ben was telling the truth about not being scared, he couldn't be sure. A part of him felt as though he had only given Rey that answer so that she wouldn't be afraid of him. "He's been around for a very long time; I was much younger than you are when he first showed himself."

"I hope that I'll be around for a long time, too!"

"You aren't afraid of me?" he asked.

"Nope!" she responded almost immediately, shaking her head fervently.

Ben couldn't help but smile.

 

The following time that he was dropped in on by Rey, she manifested in a way that sent a jolt coursing through Ben's body, from the very tip of his skull and directly to his hips. He had never experienced such a sensation before, and it was almost as surprising to him as it was to see a fully matured Rey lying on his bed.

She was dressed in her usual pure white garments, only this time they were sheerer and form-fitting. He forced himself to swallow as he took in her figure; she was slender and nicely built, with well-defined muscles and tanned skin. Her arms were still covered and bandaged up, but she had let her hair loose. It was longer than he imagined it to be, cascading past her shoulders and touching the middle of her back.

She reached out to him, grabbing hold of his hand and pulling him down onto the bed beside her. He was trembling, both because he was suddenly unable to control his desire and because he couldn't make sense of what was happening. He kept his hands held flush to his sides, absolutely terrified of making a wrong move and having her go away again.

Rey began running her fingers through his hair, combing them through slowly at first, then more aggressively, locking her fingers around the strands. She used her grip to pull Ben closer to her, letting their lips brush together ever so slightly as she spoke. "Make love to me, Ben."

He groaned with arousal and pressed his lips to hers, kissing her hungrily and somewhat clumsily. He directed his kisses downwards, planting them along her jaw and at the tender parts of her neck, earning Ben a breathy moan that sounded almost heavenly. For the first time in his life, Ben felt at home, and even better still: he felt at home with a person that wanted to keep him around.

"...you were not wise enough to resist the bait."

Ben looked up at Rey, breathless, for her voice was melded with that of the man's who haunted him. But that was not all; her skin began to decay before his very eyes, shriveling and peeling away from her bones as if she had been gone for many years.

"Ben?! What's happening to me?" she urged, her eyes overflowing with panic. "Ben, please don't leave me alone!"

"You're not alone, okay?" he held onto her sides as tightly as he could muster given how shaky his limbs were, anchoring her down on the bed in the hopes that it would save her. "I'm right here. I-"

The same scar that his tormentor bore began to form on her forehead, and then slowly but surely made it's way down to her jaw, splitting her face in half. Without thinking, Ben reached his hand upwards in a futile attempt at holding her together. "No, no! Please!" he screamed, begging her to stay with him for just a little while longer.

 

After that night, Rey stopped visiting just as suddenly as she started, and the man was eager to take her place. He sat in the chair opposite Ben's bed with jarring regality; he propped himself up as straight as his decaying figure would allow, and he wore that same, paper-thin smile that took dominion over his features. Only this time around, it was different. He didn't look malicious or eldritch. He looked almost... triumphant.

He began to speak in a low voice, purposely, so that Ben had to strain to hear him. "Everyone leaves you, it seems."

"Be quiet. Please."

"Your father and his blubbering pet Wookiee. Your mother," he continued on, his tone still hushed. "Not even the girl wanted to be around you. It's a shame, really, just how utterly useless you are. You couldn't even ravish her properly, and now she's gone. And just when I was starting to enjoy her."

"Leave her alone," Ben snapped at the figure through grit teeth. He balled up the sheets in his fists, his knuckles gone white with tension.

The spectre laughed, deep and bellowing with his head tilted backward. Ben could have sworn that he saw the creature's quivering tongue through a hole in its neck. "I'll have her one day, all to myself. Make no mistake about it. We will be whole again, you and us."

 

The old man continued on with his antics night after night, berating and belittling Ben until he finally passed out with exhaustion. Things had gone back to normal, so to speak, and he had begun to wonder whether Rey had been a figment of his imagination or one of the spirit's many tricks of the mind. It seemed too good to be true for fate to grant him any type of real companionship. But just as he was about to give up faith altogether, little Rey returned to him, although not in a way that he had learned to expect.

He had heard some tales about the horrors of war, but nothing that was ever described to him could have prepared him for what he saw upon opening his bedroom doors. Ben was immediately met with a miasma of wretchedness, and the unbearable smell of rotting meat. The walls and floors were splattered almost completely with blood, and suspended in mid-air at the center of his room was Rey. She was much older than she was when she had last appeared to Ben, but he could tell incontrovertibly that he was looking at the same girl.

Her eyes were blown wide, unseeing, and her mouth was hanging open in a soundless, unending scream. The bandages had been removed from her arms, revealing tens, if not hundreds of thin wounds at varied stages of healing. The spectre stood beside her, digging his jagged nails into her skin and carving it out like ribbons. He held his hand up before his face, stuck his tongue outwards and dropped the strip of flesh into his mouth. He swallowed.

Ben threw up at his feet.

 

IV. Starkiller

 

“Who are you always talking to in here?”

Ben was so lost in conversation that he hadn’t even noticed the red head slip in behind him.

Hux stood at the mouth of the room with his arms crossed neatly behind his back, watching with hawk-like precision, ready to strike if need be.

“How long have you been standing there?”

“Long enough,” Hux responded, pressing his lips into a firm line. “Interesting, how someone so barking mad could be placed in such a position of power.”

“I’m not-“ Ben closed his mouth before finishing the sentence. He knew that the amount of jealousy and hatred that Hux held for him would make it impossible to prove his sanity. “It’s nobody. I’m talking to myself.”

“The Supreme Leader sent me to retrieve you. He wishes to have a word.”

With that, Hux turned on his heels and exited the antechamber, leaving Ben alone once more with the... thing.

 

“It has occurred to me that I have never told you my name, young Solo.”

“It’s alright, I don’t need the formality.”

“As I’m sure you already figured out, I come from a place far from here,” it stepped down from the throne at the forefront of the room and started walking slow circles around Ben.

It ran its long, spider-like fingers along the expanse of Ben’s shoulders, tracing upwards towards his neck and stopping just below his chin.

“Your kind reffered to me as Snoke upon our first meeting. You’re all so keen on giving things a name... I suppose you believe that if you name the unknown thing you somehow have power over it. But no being can have power over me.”

“What are you?” Ben had made an attempt to remove himself from Snoke’s grip, but the creature only dug his nails further into Ben’s skin, holding him still.

Snoke was right; knowing his name didn’t give Ben any power whatsoever.

“When I first arrived, I was deemed an alien. Funny, how in a galaxy as vast as ours I could still be viewed as unnatural. But things were different then. Your kind was much more.. primitive.”

“Not that you’ve changed much since. No, you’re still fooling yourselves into thinking you can make a change in each others lives, as though anything you do really matters at all.”

“You’re wrong,” refuted Ben, trying again and succeeding this time to free himself. His skin was marked red and beginning to inflame in the spots where Snoke had touched him.

“How is there still conflict in you after all this time? How is it that you still haven’t learned your true nature?” Snoke continued his circling. “I surmise it’s unfair for me to ask you that question; I’ve been alive for aeons, your life is but a blip in comparison, a single day plucked from a millenia.”

Snoke trailed his nails along Ben’s jawline once more before making his way back to the throne. His body seemed to crumble upon itself with the effort, slowly melting onto the seat like magma. In the vast darkness of the room, Snoke appeared to be far larger than he actually was, almost giant-like in his size.

“I haven’t answered your question though, have I? Well, in the simplest terms, your ancestors were correct to call me an alien. I am not from any planet in your systems, nor do I belong to any race that inhabits those planets. Your culture does not have an exact word for what I am, but as far as others are concerned, my favorite depiction would be 'demon'."

Ben had never heard the term in his life, as far as he could remember. He knew that ghosts existed (he was almost sure that he had seen a few) and he knew of the beings that resided on Mortis. But as far as demons were concerned, Ben was thrown for a loop. "What do you want from me?"

"From you? Oh my dear boy, I don't want anything from you. It's her I want gone."

 

"I've already told you, Ren. Are you deaf as well as mental? You've kept Supreme Leader Finn waiting far too long."

Ben jumped in place; he hadn't nocticed that Hux had slipped in again and was startled by his booming voice. He nodded at the General and followed him, heading silently towards the the Supreme Leader's quarters with his eyes shifted down low.

 

That night, for the first time in a very, very long time, Ben was left alone.

He still had trouble adjusting and relaxing, of course; he was riddled with anxiety at the thought of Snoke appearing out of nowhere, and he hadn't seen Rey since that night in Chandrila. He hoped against hope that she was alright, wherever she might be.

Though she was a smaller presence in her life compared to Snoke, she was one of great comfort; the only person who had showed him any kind of real understanding. Perhaps it was the openness of childhood, or the faithful dedication of an enamored woman, but Rey seemed to be on the same wavelength as Ben. He had described to her his experience with Luke at the temple, his relationship with his mother, Snoke's recurring appearances. And she related to him in a way that was almost uncanny, almost as if she had underwent them herself.

If Ben were to think hard enough about the events, he might have convinced himself that she was, in fact, there all along. Because even in his darkest moments, even during the most distressing interactions with Snoke, there was always an undercurrent of hope, of brilliance. Had she truly come from nowhere that night? Or was she there all along, his whole life, even before he was old enough to remember her? And if Snoke truly didn't want anything from Ben, could it be that it was Rey he was after?

He curled himself up on his bed, making himself as small as his body would allow, not bothering to undress nor to move his sheets aside. He eventually drifted off to sleep, letting dreams and wishes carry him away into unconsciousness.

 

His first dream was of his grandmother. He wasn't sure how he recognized her; he had only heard stories of her work for the republic, never of her appearance aside her being described as beautiful. But he knew deep down that it was her; she seemed to possess the same eyes as his mother.

She was at the top of a meadow, wholly elysian with rolling, evergreen hills and sparkling waterfalls in the background. Sat beside her was Ben's grandfather, dressed in Jedi garb and the widest of smiles. Ben could sense the intimacy between them, the love and passion that they shared. Though he was but an observer, their tenderness towards one another was palpable, and even in his dreams it made Ben feel warm.

Ben was looking down on them as if he were standing in the heavens, soaking in the ambiance. Anakin and Padme were laughing, smiling at eachother with absolute adoration. Anakin was tackled by Padme into the grass, sending the both of them toppling downhill before coming to a stop. They kissed, briefly, then held eachother there for a while.

He was so enthralled with their displays of affection that he almost failed to notice the change in the air; it had become much harder to breathe, leaving Ben to feel as though his lungs were beginning to singe. Smoke filled the air; the waterfalls in the background had turned to lava, burning red and yellow and overflowing onto the grass, consuming the earth. Ben tried to scream, he wanted to warn his grandparents to move out of the way but he couldn't make a sound.

As the crimson rivers began to surge towards them, Anakin lifted himself; he used his knees to hold Padme's shoulder's to the ground and wrapped both hands around Padme's neck. She squirmed from beneath the Jedi, trying to free herself by kicking and thrashing. She clawed at his fingers and tried to pry them open, but he was far stronger than she was and eventually, she stilled. Her bloodshot eyes were lifeless and amaurotic. Anakin started to sob uncontrollably, running his fingers through Padme's hair and begging her not to leave him.

The lava eventually reached the couple, enveloping them in the heat and magma until there was nothing left of them.

 

Ben's second dream was of his parents.

Han and Leia had just come back from the medcenter, grinning like mad with their bodies pressed flush against one another. They were much younger; his mother had less grey in her hair and Han had fewer fine lines. Leia's belly was growing; she must have been at least 5 months along and her skin was positively radiant. Han stopped to get down on his knees before her in the foyer, planting kisses all over her stomach and cooing.

"I can't believe how lucky I am!" Han cried out. His head was pressed against Leia's stomach, listening for sounds on the inside. "I'm the luckiest man in the galaxy."

Leia looked down at Han and smiled. "He's going to be beautiful, and so powerful. It's too bad I don't want him."

Han laughed at her remark and Ben felt an all too familiar pain eating away at the edges of his heart. He was watching them afar, too, much like he was with his grandparents, but somehow he felt much closer this time. Han peered up at Leia, still beaming from ear to ear and chuckling softly. "Well, what are we waiitng for then?! Let's cut him out."

Han pulled a rusted knife from his belt and began to carve into Leia's stomach. Blood began to spill onto the floor and Ben closed his eyes, not wanting to see any more than he already had.

 

The dreams sent Ben reeling with revulsion. He woke straightaway, his eyes opening wide and dilating in order to adjust to the darkness engulfing his room. He tried to reach over and turn on the lamp beside his bed but found himself unable to move. He felt a great weight on his chest, solid and suffocating, as though something was sitting on his ribcage.

As his eyes adjusted further, he realized that the being on his chest was Rey. Instead of their usual shade of green, her eyes were yellowed and crazed, fixed motionless on Ben's face. This was not the relief that Ben was used to, but something more ominous.

She opened her mouth wide, baring her teeth and allowing an oppressively thick black liquid to pour out, clouding Ben's vision. After a few moments, he regained his mobility and flung her onto the floor. When he finally was able to reach his lamp, she was gone, leaving behind only the fluids and the intense smell of sulfur.

 

V. Crait

 

When Ben arrived on the salt covered planet, he had but one goal in mind - finding Rey.

Snoke had informed him that the girl had been appearing to his family, trying to worm her way into their inner circle. With Ben's relationship with his mother pretty much non-existent since he had joined The First Order, he could only imagine what her arrival at the Rebels' base would do. He could only hope that the situation didn't spiral so far out of hand that he would be unable to rectifiy it.

After his last experience with Rey in his room on the Starkiller, he turned to Snoke for guidance, hoping that the demon or whatever he was would have some kind of explanation for her duality.

"I tried to warn you," Snoke began. "I've tried to warn you since before you were born, but her influence was greater than I expected."

"I don't understand," said Ben, shaking his head in confusion. Surely it wasn't Rey all along?

"I've fed off of you because of your power, I'll admit, but Rey's intention is something different entirely." Snoke was sat in a chair opposite Ben, Vader's helmet placed neatly in the center of the room between them. "She's wreaked havoc on your family for decades now, starting with your great-grandmother, Shmi."

"It was Rey who got the poor woman enslaved, Rey who drove Anakin to the dark side, it was Rey who had Padme perish in childbirth. It was she who tormented your mother for all those years. I am no innocent, but like I said, the only thing I wanted is your power. She however, wants your blood."

"But how can that be?" Ben asked, his mind overflowing with questions. "How can she have done this? She's just a child?"

"Rey has never been a child. It's an old mindtrick; she appears to you in the way you wish to see her most. This is how she feeds off of you, how she manipulates you. In reality, Rey is not much different from me, although I cannot change form."

Ben opened his mouth to speak, but closed it immediately once he realized what Snoke was saying. Rey had gained his trust by appearing as a little girl the first time they had met, she gained his affection when she appeared as a woman. Had she appeared to him in other ways, in other people, without Ben even realizing?

"She made herself known to your uncle, you know," said Snoke, digging his nail into the leather seat. "As a padawan. Even the greatest Jedi was no match for her."

"You said that you didn't want anything from me...but now you're saying that you want my power. Which is it? What does Rey have to do with any of this?"

"When you were conceived, many of us demons fought over who would get to be the one to possess your mother, to be a part of that mighty Skywalker essence. We need a body to survive, so in it we may consume flesh for sustenance,"

Ben suddenly remembered the ghastly image of Snoke peeling the skin from Rey's arms.

"You, Ben Solo, being the product of Anakin Skywalker's indiscretions made you an ideal candidate. Strong with the force, intelligent and a brutal fighter. Inside you, we would be indestructible. And the fact that your lineage naturally lead you towards the dark side...well, that was a plus."

"But I was too late. I didn't realize that Rey had already been stalking your family, already waiting for your arrival. Anakin was not strong enough - too unstable emotionally and that effected his abilities. Luke was far too kind-hearted and fair to ever be tempted. And Leia...Leia was headstrong, but her greatest weakness was you. And in killing Anakin, driving Luke mad on that godforsaken island and leaving your mother in despair, you were the only target left standing after all these years. It was her who made you kill the padawans, who made you kill your father. She wants you singled out."

Ben stared at his grandfather's helmet, wondering just how reliable Snoke's story was but at the same time, realizing that it made complete sense. As far as he knew, his grandfather was a great man and a powerful Jedi, his wife Padme was of good health and Luke was completely sane. And his mother...well his mother only knew moments of sadness when his father left, but otherwise she seemed to have an excellent handle on things.

"How can I get rid of her?" he asked, knowing all too well that he was placing his hope in the wrong person.

"I have to consume her," Snoke responded. The creature licked his lips unconsciously, that poisonous tongue of his peeking out like a snake. "It is the only way to get rid of a demon. But once I do that, you'll be stuck with me."

Ben was suddenly faced with two options: let Rey continue to torment him and eventually claim his life, or be stuck with Snoke, with whom Ben would have to walk with for the rest of his days.

 

It took him a day and a half to find Rey. Tucked away in an old Resistance base surrounded with what was left of the military force founded by his mother, Ben gauged that Rey felt quite safe, almost as if she were around family.

But they were his family, and he was not about to abandon them any further than he already had.

He found her tucked away in the corner of a cave with the corpse of a fox in her hands, plucking its crystalline hair from its body with great determination. Ben wondered if she were trying to get to the animal's meat.

"Where is my mother?" He asked, voice booming with anger. He ignited his saber; the scarlet cross filled the room with a glow that made the walls look bloody.

"Dead, finally."

"I don't believe you," Ben walked closer to her, pointing his saber at her chin, forcing her to look up at him. "What have you done with her?"

"The same thing I'm going to do with you, Solo. I'm going to tear you limb from limb and when I'm done, I'll prop your pretty little head on a stick for the flies." She was grinning now, her teeth razor sharp and stained as though with black ink. "Wouldn't that be better? Wouldn't you rather that than knowing no one loves you?"

"Enough!"

"But Ben, I've hardly even started! You were so starved for attention and a connection you let me in with no struggle at all. It's a shame just how easy it was to entice you. All I had to do was pretend to love you! All I had to do was flash a pair of breasts in your face and you belonged to me."

She stood up abruptly and tossed the fox against the wall, shattering it into tiny segments. "So, you stupid, stupid boy, why not stop resisting and finally just be mine?"

She reached out to caress Ben's face; her touch was unnaturally hot as she dragged her finger from Ben's brow down towards the middle of his cheek. When she pulled away, Ben felt the area she had touched start to char, forming a deep, nasty slash that looked as if it had been made by a saber.

He instinctively held the wound, his free hand covering his face from any further damage that she might try to inflict. She began laughing then, a deep, bellowing laugh that could not possibly come from a human woman. "Perhaps I will save your mother for last, see what's inside of that festering womb of hers. Or perhaps I'll let Luke fulfill his desires and fill her with-"

Rey never got to finish her sentence, because Ben had swung his saber and split her in half. She stared at him for a few seconds before her body gave way to gravity's pull and hit the ground in not one, but two thuds.

Snoke wasted positively no time in making his appearance.

"Did you see my mother?"

"She wasn't lying," Snoke said. He leaned down on his knees before Rey's body and immediately started to disentangle her entrails. "Everyone here is dead."

Ben let out a single sob. Nothing more, nothing less.

"Looks like it's just you and me, kid."


End file.
